The World of Yellow Sky

In the Battle of Fanyang, the two mainstays of the Han Dynasty, Huangfusong and Sun Jian, all died in battle, and Liu Bei also died in the battle. Most of the elite Han army lost in this battle.

The destruction of the last cavalry of the Han army also means that it lost the possibility of rebuilding a large number of elite cavalry, just like the Song Dynasty that lost the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun in history, and its offensive ability was greatly frustrated.

As a result, the Han army also lost the ability to advance northward, and almost all of its existing troops and military supplies were almost consumed.

The breeze blows into the hall and blows past the table where the ice-appreciation table is placed.

The cold wind hit, which made Xu An feel a little more at ease when he was still a little depressed.

It is indeed a little proud. On the whole and strategically, the enemy can be underestimated, and the enemy should be underestimated.

However, we must never focus on specific issues locally, nor underestimate the enemy.

That's the mistake he made, complacent about his constant victories.

After conquering the land of Hebei, the Ming Dynasty has swept the world. Xu An took it for granted that the fall of the Han court would be a matter of time. world.

However, the Yingwei intelligence network was destroyed, and the sudden reform of the Han court was like a blow to the head, which made Xu An wake up from his complacency.

Xu An stood up and turned to look at the map hanging behind him. There was still a trace of fear in his heart.

There are too many lessons learned in history.

Sitting in the land of Hebei, Yuan Shao, who had a strong army and horses, was defeated by Cao Cao, who had only tens of thousands of troops at the time. In the end, he was defeated at Guandu and lost the qualification to compete in the world.

Occupying half of the country, Cao Cao, who had already swept the world, was ruined by a fire, defeated Chibi, and lost the opportunity to dominate the world.

Armed with millions of troops, he annexed the Tuoba clan of Xianbei in the north, annexed Qianliang in the west, and made an expedition to the Western Regions. Wan Dajun was wiped out in one day.

Fu Jian was defeated and the country perished, and was killed by the rebel general Yao Chang two years after the Battle of Feishui.

Half to ninety percent of those who walk a hundred miles, the last ten steps are the ten most difficult steps to walk.

Xu An looked solemnly, examining the map in front of him.

The territory currently occupied by the Ming Dynasty extends to the North Sea (Lake Baikal) in the north, Dawan Kingdom in the West Region in the west, Haidong Province in the east, and Shan Kingdom in the south.

The east, west, north and south are separated by tens of thousands of miles. Even if the post station is complete, it takes [-] miles to expedite, but because of the terrain and other factors, it will take more than a month to spread the news to the central government.

Not to mention, with the current rate of expansion, a lot of money and food are spent on the consumption of the army, and the infrastructure cannot keep up with the construction.

The places where the roads are in good condition now are the four prefectures of Zhong, Bing, Liang, and Yi when the Ming Dynasty was founded. The roads in the Western Regions began to be built after the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions.

The three prefectures of Jizhou, Youzhou, and Qingzhou are completely the roads left by Wei Ting. Many of these roads need to be repaired, otherwise it will be difficult to pass, let alone marching, even pedestrians will be very difficult to cross the road.

The three northern provinces are fine, and there is no need to repair any roads. After all, there are grasslands, the terrain is flat, and the traffic is fairly simple.

The war in the Northeast has broken out. Gongsun Du is now commanding the soldiers of Liaozhou, driving the soldiers of Goguryeo and Fuyu to attack Yilou and Woju. The news from the front is all good news, and the war is going well.

Xu An sat down again, and found a document from the household department from the desktop in front of him.

With just one glance, Xu An's expression became gloomy. He hadn't paid much attention to it before, but now he re-examined and found the clue.

If an idiom is used to describe the current Ming Dynasty, then the word militaristic and aggressive is the most appropriate one.

Chapter 822 Loss, Dangerous Situation

As long as you are human, you will have the seven emotions and six desires, and you need to eat and drink.

Many things can be overcome by will, such as the fear in the heart, the difficult environment, and the unbearable climate.

But eating and drinking is the only thing that is necessary for the body. If one does not eat and drink, no strong person can persevere.

Because it is a physiological need and a law of nature, all of which are not transferred by human will.

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

To march and fight, you must have sufficient food supplies to ensure the stability of the army's combat power and morale.

In the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao had countless elite soldiers and strong generals, far surpassing Cao Cao in military strength.

However, Wuchao's defeat caused the army to run out of supplies, which shocked the whole army.

In the end, more than [-] Yuan's troops were defeated at Guandu and won Huangnangu.

The importance of military logistics supplies can be seen from this.

If there is not enough food to supply the army, it will have a great impact on the morale and physical fitness of an army.

As for logistics supplies, it was not an easy task in ancient times when there were no planes, trains, and even roads were relatively backward.

"Hanshu Zhufu Yan Biography" has a saying: "In the past, the emperor of Qin took the power of victory, eroded the world, annexed the Warring States, and the sea was one..."

"And let the whole world fly the grass and pull the millet, start from the counties of Huang, Yu, and Langxie, and transfer to the Beihe River. It takes [-] minutes to reach a stone. The men's quick farming is not enough for food and wages, the women's spinning is not enough for the curtain, and the people are desolate. I, the lonely, widowed, old and weak cannot support each other, and when the dead look at each other, the whole world will start to rebel."

At the beginning, Qin Shihuang wanted to conquer the Xiongnu, but the prime minister Li Si used the words to persuade the first emperor to temporarily stop the army.

Let the world quickly transport grain, mobilize grain from far away places, take thirty minutes to get one stone, that is, transport thirty stones of corn, only one stone can be transported,

The men worked hard to cultivate, but couldn't meet the needs of food and pay, and the women worked hard to weave, but couldn't meet the needs of curtains.

The people are exhausted, the widows, the old and the weak cannot support themselves, and the dead look at each other on the road. Because of this, there will be rebellion in the world.

Thirty shi of corn was transported from the interior to the frontier and only one shi remained, which is indeed a bit exaggerated and inaccurate.

After all, the origin of grain is far and near, but it is undeniable that the loss of grain on the road is indeed quite huge.

Although the garrison system in the Han and Wei dynasties, the government military system in the Tang Dynasty, and the military household system in the Ming Dynasty had different purposes, they all saved money and food to a certain extent.

The Fubing system solves the problem of a stable source of soldiers, and the village system solves the problem of food supply.

The military household system is trying to solve the problems of the two, but the previous system was fine when it was first established, but as time went by, the system began to collapse, and it was difficult to have both fish and bear's paws.

The people in the army consume a lot of horse chews, and the consumption during transportation is even more than that of the army. This is the problem.

The household documents in Xu An's hand clearly recorded the loss of these military rations.

Some places even reached [-]% of the military rations transported from Liangzhou to the Western Regions.

Xu An recalled the household documents he had read, as well as the military expenditures and food and grass expenses submitted by the Central Military Government.

All the data that he ignored in the past flooded into Xu An's mind at this moment.

In the first year of the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made disasters occurred in various parts of Zhongzhou, which reduced the grain production and almost failed to harvest. They also mobilized the grain reserves of Liangzhou and Bingzhou, and even mobilized a part of the grain from Hanzhong County to aid Zhongzhou. lasted until the second year.

Not long after the second year, the situation in the Central Plains changed suddenly. The Wei army in Qingzhou lost, and then the Han army suddenly made a northern expedition.

The Xianbei Shanyu Jianman in the middle of the northern region is ambitious and ready to move, wanting to annex the eastern Xianbei and unify the Xianbei.

In order to deal with such a critical situation, Xu An chose to personally lead the army to conquer Hebei, and at the same time ordered Lu Bu to be ready to send troops to attack Xianbei at any time to stabilize the situation in the North.

Because of the previous reasons, there was not enough food in stock, so Xu An ordered the collection of food from the people in various places, in the form of copper coins, gold and silver, and bonds. The so-called bonds are IOUs, which can be exchanged for the same amount of food, or offset The same amount of land tax.

And [-]% of the grain collected was for the Lu Bu army in the north, and only [-]% was for the army on the Eastern Expedition.

After the battle of Fanyang was won, the Ming army gradually took over the entire land of Hebei, and the food and money stored in Hebei were naturally obtained by the Ming army. The food consumed by the inland garrison was not much. Therefore, when Lu Bu fought in northern Xinjiang in the later period, All the money and food in Bingzhou are supporting the operations of the Serbian Army.

The money and food spent on sending troops from Wuhuan of the Three Counties and Wuhuan of Shanggu were sent from Youzhou for expenses.

When the Liangzhou army went to battle, it was supplied by Liangzhou at the beginning, and at the same time plundered the Xianbei tribes to supplement it, and finally it was supplied by Bingzhou.

In the battle of Rao Leshui, Lu Bu led the army and completed his merits in one battle, punishing the central Xianbei and subduing the eastern Xianbei. After this battle, there was no royal court in Xianbeilia.

But this battle also almost emptied all of Bingzhou's grain reserves, and one-third of Youzhou's grain reserves were used for the war.

The only good thing is that all the cattle, sheep and livestock of the Xianbei tribes were captured by the Ming army, and a large number of people were captured and sent to China for labor reform. After all, they did not lose too much money.

The reason why the past dynasties seldom took the initiative to attack the Northland was because the nomadic peoples in the Northland lived by water and grass, had no city walls, towns, and places to gather. Their migration and migration were as erratic as birds and difficult to control.

If the light soldiers go deep, the food will inevitably be insufficient. If the food is transported, the food will be heavy and difficult to transport, which will not solve the problem.

Seizing the land in the North cannot be used for profit.People captured in the Northland cannot be recruited to guard.

However, these few problems are not too big a problem for Xu An.

In history, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty launched the Northern Expedition. It took a lot of time to find the main force of the nomadic people in the north, and it was even difficult to find them. In the end, it wasted national power.

But the Ming army did not have such worries. Jian Man was eager for success, and wanted to take advantage of the time when the Ming army had no time to go north, to defeat the eastern Xianbei and unify the entire Xianbei tribe.

The Ming army not only has an elite cavalry army, but also generals like Yu Fuluo who used to be the leader of nomadic tribes, and even traitors among Xianbei to guide the way.

Because of this, Rao Leshui's Xianbei fiasco happened.

Seizing the land in the Northland cannot be used for profit, but the people who move north to the Central Plains can turn the pastures in the Northland into pastures in China.

It is true that the people captured in the north cannot be recruited to guard, but transferring them to the south can weaken the power of resistance on the one hand, and make them a labor force on the other.

It is precisely because of the particularity of Xianbei that the Ming army was able to complete its merits in one battle.

Even if calculated carefully, the income from the captured cattle and sheep is more valuable than the consumption of food and grass, not to mention the land and population.

However, these cattle, sheep and livestock must not be slaughtered all at once, and they must be kept.

However, the lost money and food cannot be replenished in time, and the establishment of the Beifu Army, the transfer of Xianbei captives to the south, and the northward migration of Chinese people all require a lot of money and food to support them.

At this time, almost all the granaries in Bingzhou were empty, but fortunately there was still a large amount of grain in Jizhou, and the grain used by the Xianbei captives transferred to the south was actually Jizhou's grain.

The people who moved north to China also spent the grain reserves of Jizhou and Youzhou.

The battle of the Western Regions is now also emptying Liangzhou's grain reserves for many years.

There was still a little grain stored in Yizhou, but due to the flood of the Han River, a lot of grain income was lost.

The land of Yizhou is fertile, with a large population and high grain output.

However, the road transportation is inconvenient, and the loss of grain transportation from Yizhou to Zhongzhou is huge, and even the transportation within the state is also huge.

Zhang Yan mobilized troops in southern Xinjiang. In fact, there is not much food left in Yizhou this year.

Xu An found the documents from the Logistics Department of the Chinese Army Mansion from the pile of documents on the desktop.

The more careful scrutiny and in-depth study, the more dignified Xu An's expression became.

I thought that after capturing the land of Hebei, the financial crisis could be resolved.

But now it seems that the financial crisis that accompanied Taiping Road in Shangdang County has not been resolved, and if it continues to expand like this, it will even worsen.

The army is aggressive and spends tens of thousands of dollars.

And the next step, years of fighting, will cause the soldiers to wither and complain.

"Xu Hong."

Xu An raised his head from the tablet and shouted in a cold voice.

"Subordinates are here."

Hearing Xu An's shout, Xu Hong immediately stepped into the hall from outside the door. He is the commander of Teng Xiangwei, responsible for protecting Xu An at all times, and also shouldering the task of conveying orders.

"Call Xu You over."

Xu Hong noticed something was wrong with Xu An's tone and words.

In the past, Xu An had never been in a hurry, and he always said words such as "please" and "let".

"promise."

Xu Hong didn't dare to neglect, he had followed Xu An for many years, and he knew at a glance that Xu An was definitely in a bad mood.

After Xu Hong made a promise, he trotted along the long corridor towards the side hall.

Xu An frowned and looked at the documents on the table.

The biggest problem now is the problem of grain and grass, and the grain and grass in the three states of Bingzhou, Yizhou, and Youzhou have almost been exhausted.

Most of the Xianbei captives who were transferred to the south and the people who moved to China to the north were transported by Jizhou.

The grain and grass that the Beifu army went south was also the grain and grass supply that Jizhou transferred to Bingzhou, and the grain and grass stored in Bingzhou had already been exhausted in the previous wars in the North and the newly established provinces.

Fortunately, the [-] Beifu troops marched southward in the hinterland, where the roads have always been well maintained in Bingzhou.

Zhongzhou was hit by the disaster, and although they have accumulated some surplus grain this year, it is not much.

The Beifu army's entry into the Western Regions may consume all the reserves of Kongzhou, and it will also need Liangzhou's support.

At this time, due to the battle in the Western Regions, Liangzhou had consumed more than half of its food reserves.

Xu An frowned. He took out a report on Liangzhou, made a rough calculation in his mind, and had a corresponding outline in his mind.

Liangzhou's food and grass can support the Beifu army to reach the Western Regions, but after arriving in the Western Regions, there is no way to support them for too long.

Fortunately, in Liangzhou Prefecture, the loss of grain and grass transportation is not large, but once it enters the Western Regions, a large amount of grain and grass will be lost on the road, which is not enough to support the Beifu army.

Beifu Army...

Xu An turned around and looked at the hanging map. The Beifu army had [-] soldiers. If they lacked food, it would cause a large-scale commotion. Although they did not have weapons, they should not be underestimated.